A former employee of an upscale assisted-living facility in Calabasas was sentenced today to six years to life in state prison for torturing an 80-year-old resident and abusing three other elderly residents.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Martin Herscovitz imposed the term on Cesar Ulloa after hearing from several of the victims’ family members about their anger over what happened to their loved ones, according to Deputy District Attorney Robin Allen.

The 22-year-old Reseda man — who worked as a caregiver at Silverado Senior Living between February and November 2007 — was convicted April 8 of one count of torture and seven counts of elder abuse.

He was arrested in October 2008, following an 11-month investigation that was launched after a whistleblower claimed that 80-year-old Elmore Kittower had been the victim of foul play.

An autopsy determined that the retired engineer had died on Nov. 6, 2007, of a blood clot in his lung, but the investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department — which resulted in Kittower’s body being exhumed – – determined that he had repeatedly been abused, according to the prosecutor.

Ulloa punched the victim and attacked him on numerous occasions, resulting in rib fractures and other injuries, Allen said.

The elder abuse charges also involved two other men and a woman, who suffered from dementia and couldn’t say what was happening to them, Allen said.

“This was a horrendous case of elder abuse,” she said after the verdict. “He attacked the most vulnerable people, and he laughed while doing it. This was sport for him.”